“With Christ in the boat, all is well with us.”
– Charlotte Mason, Scale How Meditations
Certainly there have been many authors whose commentaries and devotional writing have aided me in my spiritual walk. When I began my homeschool journey some 25 years ago, I had no idea that I would be adding Charlotte Mason to that list. All of her writings – from her six-volume Home Education Series based on the Gospels to The Saviour of the World, her six volume poetic commentary on the Gospels– have pointed me to Christ. But none have had a sweeter and more direct instructional help to me than Scale How Meditations. Dozens of women have walked alongside me through this book in my Living Education Lessons, Season 6 and learned either for the first time or in a fresh way, how to meditate on the Scriptures first and foremost (yes, narration is involved!) and on Miss Mason’s wise words second. Up until now, Dr. Benjamin Bernier’s annotated softcover has been the only way to access these meditations aside from visiting the Charlotte Mason Archives at the Armitt Museum in Ambleside. Naturally, I longed to produce a beautiful hardcover for personal study and meditation. Thanks to Riverbend Press, this dream is now a reality.
Let me tell you a little bit about these original meditations and then about this special edition. Charlotte Mason shared a series of talks with her students on Sunday afternoons at Scale How based on the book of John chapters 1-7. These are known as Scale How Meditations. And I found in In Memoriam an interesting description of the afternoons when she would give these talks. A former student states:
“At 4:15 on Sunday afternoons we used to go into the drawing room for ‘meditations’ with Miss Mason. We used to read passages of the Bible to her and then she would discuss the passage, giving her thoughts and trying to get ours on the subject…It was during that hour that we saw more clearly than at any other time how closely she lived with God. Yet withal she was so human and humble.”
Can you imagine reading passages of Scripture to Miss Mason, listening to her comments, and participating in a discussion with her? I think she was more down-to-earth than many have made her -a gifted yet humble servant of the Lord. Students transcribed these talks and they were sent out to subscribers weekly and later monthly in the Parents’ Review . She also wrote five other meditations that were published in the PR, not based on John chapters 1-7. These articles highlighted the importance she put on meditating, discipleship, and the knowledge of God. Her personal secretary, Elsie Kitching, gathered those that were sent out weekly and bound them in a personal notebook. You can see her copy at the Armitt Library in Ambleside and now, Charlotte Mason Poetry will be transcribing these and sharing them free of charge on their website. Their transcriptions will include the complete Bible text for each meditation from the English Revised Version, the translation used by Mason in her 1898 Sunday afternoon sessions.
This new hardcover edition of Scale How Meditations has some inspiring features. There is a detailed, fold-out print of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting, The Sermon of St. John the Baptist which is from a scene in John chapter 1:19-31. I encourage you to read that and meditate on it with the picture in mind. The text is beautifully and clearly typeset, a feast for the eyes! I wrote a fresh new foreword. Next you will find the 30 meditations on John chapters 1-7, each one prefaced clearly with the corresponding Scripture references. And in the back you will find an article called “Teaching Children to Pray” by the Reverend Northcote, and then Mason’s five other meditations titled “Meditation”, “Simplicity”, “A New Year’s Mediation”, “An Easter Meditation” and “The Nativity”, in which the second half explains why there would be no more of them printed in prose form! It is covered in a beautiful earthy brown (symbolic of the camel-hair wearing St. John the Baptist) with an imprint of a small bundle of wheat which is also symbolic, of course, of Christ as the Bread of Life (found in John chapter 6.)
I am thrilled to share this new edition with you. I hope it helps you further understand Mason’s heart, and more importantly, deepens your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Teaching from peace,
Nancy
This book is now available at Riverbend Press. You can order it here.
For a more thorough history of Scale How Meditations, see this article.
Your thoughts?